Saturday, July 10, 2010

How "The City That Knows How" treats visitors

On Monday, Independence Day, I came into the city to have lunch with a friend. It being a city, county and federal holiday, I didn't put money in the meter. But when I came out, I had received a parking meter citation, as had everyone on the block.

Researching this online, I eventually found indeed that, while Monday was a holiday for the entire rest of the nation, it was not for San Francisco parking enforcement.

How deceitful and how petty.

Does San Francisco want to be known as the Insidious City, where one has to research to make sure that today there's not some variance from legal precedent?

I'll feel a little safer spending my dollars closer to home next time.

Mayor Gavin Newsom should consider an amnesty for Gotcha Day and instruct the Department of Parking and Traffic to adhere in the future to the holiday schedule the rest of the country is on.

5 Comments:

If true, that is indeed disgusting. Just don't claim that it's anti-car. Unfortunately every city in the country does this - it's overzealous meter maids that are the problem and dependence on parking fees that is also a problem.

That said, the fact that people park illegally all day in the middle of Dolores street really annoys the hell out of me. The police have let this "happen" because of churches on Sunday but it's now status quo to let people do it all weekend and all night Saturday (while they booze in the mission). I can't get my damn car around the corner half the time because of all these fools illegally parked.

Independence Day is July 4th but it was a bit surprising that July 5th - which was generally the Federal Holiday, was running like a workday in some cases. This was true of the Bay Bridge which was running a regular schedule with the congestion charges and carpool discount as if it were any random Monday.

It may not be much consolation for Mr. Rose, but the city treats its own residents just as badly. Keeping parking meters in operation on Sundays and holidays is only the latest desperation move by city government to extract enough money from everyone to maintain a bloated city government and its thousands of overpaid, featherbedding workers.